With the growing popularity of FT8, the use of Gridsquares in awards criteria has exploded well beyond the realm of VHF/UHF. The Activity Group Belarus (AGB) offers up the Locators Award for working Amateur Radio stations in as many gridsquares as possible on HF as well as VHF.
The bottom level requirement for a certificate is just 25 different squares. That’s a very low bar for even the most humble of stations to attain. But that’s just the beginning of the program. Thirteen discrete levels of accomplishment, with a separate certificate for each, lead up to the top level award for working 5,000 different grids.
To make things more interesting, there are also separate awards for working grids using 6 specific modes (T10, FT8, JT65, JT9, FT4 and JS8) or making contacts on 20 singular bands (135 kHz through 24 GHz).
The certificate highlights the number of grids worked and sports a map showing grid fields around the world. Grid fields are the groupings of 100 grids that are indicated by the first two letters of a grid square.
Like several other clubs that offer a large number of awards, AGB relies on the UltimateAAC application. Just point the app to your WSJT-X ADIF file to load it up and the program will let you know which awards, such as Locators, you qualify for. Applying for the award at that point is a simple click away.